More Apple Patents

[MacRumors]

News.com covers some recently published patent applications from Apple.

The list includes technologies related to Expose, Video conferencing, music submissions and iPod technology.

The "Media player with acceleration protection" patent (applied in June 2003) covers fall protection for the iPod:

The portable computing device protects its disk drive by monitoring for such accelerations and operating to avoid usage of the disk drive during periods of acceleration. Through such protection, the likelihood of damage to the disk drive or loss of data stored on the disk drive is able to be substantially reduced. According to another aspect, a user of a portable computing device can be alerted when the portable computing device is being subjected to undesirable levels of acceleration.

Of note, IBM introduced similar technology in their ThinkPad notebooks in late 2003.

Patent applications can be found at the US Patent and Trademark Office website.

 

[Daveway]

Hell, i dropped mine from 10ft on marble floor and shes still runin' great. Although she doesnt look as great

It would be great if they came up with a scratch resistant ipod.

 

[Trowaman]

an expose patent, eh? Guess that's one feature we will NOT see in Longhorn. Go Apple, that's one thing you needed to patent.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Music submissions sounds interesting. They will become a music label. My guess is more information about this at MacWorld.

 

[2A Batterie]

This is ridiculous. I don't think Apple should be wasting time on patenting new ideas and technologies while there are still millions of people to sue out there. Hopefully Apple will wise up and sue at least three people responding to this thread.

 

[TednDi]

Perhaps....

This is ridiculous. I don't think Apple should be wasting time on patenting new ideas and technologies while there are still millions of people to sue out there. Hopefully Apple will wise up and sue at least three people responding to this thread.

Apple is considering a new device... The iStenograph machine for use in all future lawsuits......

 

[DrK]

Music submissions sounds interesting. They will become a music label. My guess is more information about this at MacWorld.

Hmm ... what will Apple Corps/The Beatles have to say about this?

 

[LimeiBook86]

I was thinking about protection for laptop hard drives, but I guess the iPod can use this technology too, or any other Apple device needing it.

 

[Poff]

an expose patent, eh? Guess that's one feature we will NOT see in Longhorn. Go Apple, that's one thing you needed to patent.

Hey! Some guys have allready gotten around to make Exposé for Windows. Maybe Apple will sue them soon.. Or at least stop the program.

 

[2A Batterie]

Apple Files Patent for iTunes Producer

Reported by The Mac Observer
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/12/23.5.shtml

 

[dng]

News.com
Of note, IBM introduced similar technology in their ThinkPad notebooks in late 2003.

Yes this technology is new as of this year on IBM T40's, T42's, and their ultraportables X40's.

"The airbag-like IBM Active Protection System provides unique data protection on select ThinkPad T and X Series models. Using an integrated, user-configurable motion sensor, it safeguards your valuable data by continuously monitoring your ThinkPad notebook and temporarily stopping the hard drive to help prevent some hard drive crashes when a fall or similar event is detected — providing up to four times greater impact protection than systems without this feature. And the IBM ThinkPad HDD Shock Absorber provides impact protection from crashes that could occur when setting the notebook on a hard surface while in use — up to 30% more protection than the system case alone." (excerpt from: http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/thinkpad/xseries/index.html#aps)

You can find a presentation here about it:
http://www.pc.ibm.com/presentations/aps/56/index.html

In real world experience, the hard drive head is parked when the g sensor inside is triggered.

 

[feeze]

Hey! Some guys have allready gotten around to make Exposé for Windows. Maybe Apple will sue them soon.. Or at least stop the program.

I never knew that, I googled it and came across a few apps, such blatent rip-offs, one of them is called Exposer. I hope Apple sue's these companies for everything they are worth. One thing I really hate is when people blatently ripp-off your work. Some don't even try to make it look different or original. It really pisses me off when you spend hours getting something right only to have some lazy bastard copy you. These companies should burn

 

[DavidLeblond]

Hmm ... what will Apple Corps/The Beatles have to say about this?

Hrmm yeah I didn't think Apple Corps had much of a reason to sue Apple for the Apple Music Store, but for this iTunes Producer thing... hell I'd be pissed.

 

[timster]

Hey! Some guys have allready gotten around to make Exposé for Windows. Maybe Apple will sue them soon.. Or at least stop the program.

There was a program called WinExposé, and Apple Legal did indeed step in.

They made them change the name (to "WinPlosion" I think) but otherwise the program is just the same. I actually got it for my tablet. It's useful, but not half as good as the real thing:

- no live updating,
- you can't drag things onto Exposéd windows, pause until they come to the front, and then drop
- jerky as hell on a large screen, even with a powerful graphics card
- the sizing logic is screwy and it tries to be too geometrical

But hey, that's Windows for you! I'm just wondering if Longhorn will rip it off too?

 

[AlanAudio]

I can understand that if you drop a hard drive, it would be safest if the head were parked in an area where no data is stored.

But I'm puzzled about why this is considered so vital for iPods.

Surely the iPod only runs it's disk very rarely and fills up a massive RAM buffer. The battery is able to power it for so long because the hard drive might only spin once every twenty minutes or so ( under optimum conditions ).

I would assume that the hard disk head is safely parked when the disk isn't being used, so the proportion of time when the head is in a risky area must be very low and wouldn't appear to warrant this sort of protection.

Maybe this is a technique that is intended to be used elsewhere ? It doesn't seem a pressing need to have this protection on an iPod.

Do we have any access to figures for the number of hard drives wrecked in this way on iPods ?

 

[Doctor Q]

According to another aspect, a user of a portable computing device can be alerted when the portable computing device is being subjected to undesirable levels of acceleration.

Your phone can already have custom ringtones. Now your iPod can have custom droptones. I can't decide whether to have mine play "I will survive" by Gloria Gaynor, the Super Mario Brothers "Mario dies" sound, or perhaps a voice saying "I'm falling and I can't get up!"

 

[toughboy]

Hmm ... what will Apple Corps/The Beatles have to say about this?

Do I care about Beatles?! Oh no!

Do I care about the contract between them about that music stuff?.. No again..

way to hell "beatless"... go sue someone else!

 

[dotmike]

This is ridiculous. I don't think Apple should be wasting time on patenting new ideas and technologies while there are still millions of people to sue out there. Hopefully Apple will wise up and sue at least three people responding to this thread.

I know you're joking but there are actually good reasons to patent stuff even without intending to sue anyone for infringement.

If SOMEONE ELSE patents it first, they can sue Apple, and even if there is Prior Art to invalidate their claim, it's sometimes difficult to establish it, particularly if the employees/managers haven't kept dated copies of design materials.

Of course, when it comes to software patents, the US system's screwed, and whether Europe goes the same way is currently on a knife edge.

 

[JonMaker]

IBM

It's interesting to note that Apple gets a patent on the HD drop thingy that was used on IBM notebooks so shortly after IBM sells of it's PC divison...

As for those Exposé ripoffs, "imitation is the highest form of flattery."

 

[digitalbiker]

Patents on GUI's are ridiculous

Getting a patent on Expose is stupid. Almost all modern interfaces are just tweeks of already existing technology.

Amiga computer had the exact same expose feature built into Amiga dos back in 1988. Commodore recognised that a true multitasking environment would create many windows which would confuse the user. Therefore they added special keys that would display all active windows on the screen so that a user could switch to another window easily.

I don't think Apple ripped-off Commodore. But I'm glad Commodore didn't patent their GUI or Apple wouldn't have been able to add the feature.

Personally I think patents should be used for truly innovative and thoughtful new technolgy, not just minor tweeks that lock others out for a cheap competitive advantage.

I was also against the patent attempts by Amazon to essentially patent online commerce sites. This would have killed the internet as a business if Amazon and others had succeeded.

 

[swissmann]

I am amazed at how well built that little iPod is.

 

[doogle]

I can understand that if you drop a hard drive, it would be safest if the head were parked in an area where no data is stored.

But I'm puzzled about why this is considered so vital for iPods.

My guess is that the steady evolution of iPod into its' own platform continues. In the near future the iPod will be the OSX platform of choice and this mini computer is going to need some serious protection from damage etc. The drive will ahve to spin and read/write more.

 

[quagmire]

excuse my stupidness, the HD lock up thing is on the 4g iPods?

 

[x86isslow]

a new apple pro mouse, with [iPod-style?] scroll support? i might be interested in a bluetooth version

 

[jared_kipe]

Can we say click-wheel mouse???